Life, Living, Learning- 15

 

I noticed a Barbet and a Bulbul feeding, taking a mouthful and relishing their morning meal!

Sonn thereafter, I noticed a Bulbul taking out a banana form the feeding bowl and dropping it on the courtyard and opening its bills large unlike  the usual pattern of Bulbul eating by pecking. 

Following the unusual sight, I noticed a Barbet trying to eat the  banana by taking a large portion into its bills well beyond it can swallow. 

This Barbet kept at its efforts to swallow for a while. In not having been able to do so, it flew away to a nearby tree to feed privately lest other birds came to share the meal. 

It was after this I happened to notice that some Barbets are not co-feeders. They were in two separate bowls although both had enough to feed on. 

What I noticed about the Bulbuls below was different. They not only fed from the same bowl but drew near to each other while feeding and 

behaving communicatively!

The  theory of hierarchy of needs proposed by a Humanist Psychologist  Dr Abraham Maslow came to my mind. These needs in the ascending order are: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation needs

Dr Maslow a Russian Jewish migrant from Russia to the USA in the early nineteen hundred, was among one of the seven children, who felt lonely and suffered from low self esteem. Having started on a course in law and changed tracks couple of times, settled down to study psychology for rest of his life. He is attributed to be the thought originator of humanistic psychology. 

In the photos above, there were illustrations of birds meeting their physiological needs of hunger, exercising safety by self-seeking and co-feeding expressing a desire to be sociable. But the photos also illustrated the greedy instinct of at least one Barbet. 

This raised a question in my mind if the hirerarchy of needs fully represents the human psycho-behaviour journey! I did not get a glimpse of a self-actualisation model in many social contexts I happened to be involved during my active professional years. I noticed greedy, possessive, acquisitive, accumulative and indulgent behaviour along with many living in peace, hope, contentment, and interior composure. 

I happened to re-read the book, God Has A Dream, by a former Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Desmond Tutu. Let me quote from the cover page of the book: 'In this book, his most soul searching book to date, Dr Desmond Tutu shares the spiritual message that guided him through the troubled times' while engaging peacefully for freedom for the African natives from racial discrimination. 'Drawing upon personal and historical examples, the Archbishop reaches out to readers of all backgrounds, how individual and global suffering can be transformed into joy and redemption...'

Bishop Tutu later became the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Common to create an opportunity for people to confess crimes or atrocities that they committed to each other due to 200 years of racial tensions, and seek forgiveness from each other. It was this which gave a healing touch, leading to peace and harmony socially, when Mr Nelson Mandela became the first President of independent South Africa.

I wonder whether Maslow's theory answers the current global stress in relationships between nations and people groups in different countries. 

What seems to override the existential response to hierarchy of needs for human harmony, is the purposefulness with which each person or a nation pursues the calling in life.  

I remember how the British government purposefully created scholarships for students from all the common wealth countries and offered it as a service as soon a country became independent of the British rule. This single act brought students from many common wealth nations to come to Britain to study and return to improve the facilities in their home countries. I admire the good intention of the British government. They did what was beyond the usual with a purpose to help!  

This to me is the feature of interdependence. Bishop Tutu uses a native word in his book to describe interdependence, ubuntu. According to the Archbishop, 'A person with ubuntu, is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share.  Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive, and emerge still human, despite all the efforts to dehumanise them' (Page 26).

I wish the Barbet who was attempting to swallow more than what it can will learn to be more sociable towards other birds. 

I wish those who advocate Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs think with an attitude of interdependence, ubuntu, that they would go beyond themselves in actualising their dreams and live and relate mindfully of their neighbours who need a helping hand! 

To me that is one evidence of purposeful living also for the benefit of others!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)